


A Lifetime Ago in London

by ATouchOfHeavenlyLight



Category: The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Genre: F/F, London, Mirandy Year of Fun & Frolics, Writers Bingo, card 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 09:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15434316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ATouchOfHeavenlyLight/pseuds/ATouchOfHeavenlyLight
Summary: Miranda takes Andrea back to the East End, to the building she grew up in, to glimpse the past she'd rather forget. There is a glimmer of good to be seen, to be remembered, but nothing so blinding as the good of the woman beside her on a dirty London street.





	A Lifetime Ago in London

**Author's Note:**

> For bingo card 1: london

“This is it,” Miranda said, looking up at a dilapidated building that hadn’t change in the last thirty some years. It looked a bit more worn, if that was even possible, but that was all. She had read about the regeneration efforts of the East End, had seen it herself even on her many trips to London, but it hadn’t touched her old neighborhood in the slightest. The people walking around them were the same sort of people that she had grown up with. She shivered and pulled her coat tighter. She had dressed specifically with coming here in mind. Nothing was flashy, nothing was brightly colored, the only way she stood out was that her clothes were less worn. God knew the characters she grew up with that would pull out a switchblade and demand money were probably around here somewhere.

“This isn’t what people imagine when they think of Miranda Priestly’s childhood,” Andrea said in a hushed voice, looking around with wide eyes. She didn’t blame Andrea. She’d seen the middle class neighborhood that she’d grown up in. Andrea had seen poverty in New York, yes, but this was different.

“This wasn’t Miranda Priestly’s childhood, this was where Miriam Princhek grew up.” Vaguely she could feel her fingertips ache with remembrance of the sewing she’d helped out with from the day she could hold a needle until she had left behind this apartment for good. “Two streets over is the synagogue we attended, a block past that is what passed as a grocery store for the neighborhood, two blocks the other way was the elementary school I went to, I used to play with my friends on this street when I was very young.” She breathed in the past and tried to not let herself drown.

“You’ve told me how you fought your way out, but seeing this…it makes it more real. I imagine if it looks like this on the outside the inside is…worse.”

Miranda hummed her agreement, remembering pipes that only worked half the time and a non-existent building owner that never fixed anything and of stepping over sleeping forms in the morning dark trying to get ready for school. “Yes, well, multiply that by ten people in a two bedroom apartment and it certainly doesn’t get any better.”

Andrea turned to her. “Thank you for showing me this. How long has it been since you’ve been back here?”

“As soon as I had enough money I moved my parents into a better part of town. That was in my mid-to-late-twenties I think, right after I made Art Director at Runway UK. I never wanted to come back here, if the name change wasn’t enough evidence of how much I wanted to leave the past where it laid.”

“The girls haven’t asked?”

“They have, but I told them it was unsafe and I wouldn’t take them. I wasn’t wrong about that, however…”

Andrea nodded. “I understand. I think one day though, they might need to see this.”

Miranda drew in a deep breath. “I thought perhaps their senior year, when they would more understand just what all of this means.”

“I think that’s fair.”

They stood looking for another long minute as people brushed past them, walks screaming how tired they were. Her parents had walked like that for years, collapsing into bed after a long day of work. From fourteen to seventeen she had walked the same way after picking up shifts at the seamstress. There had been no striding down hallways on heels that cost more than her parents earned combined in a month back then, nothing even close.

“There was still good here?” Andrea asked.

“There was. Family was everything for us. My cousins and I were incredibly close. There was always someone ready with a funny story or a song or to listen about your problems. The more successful I got the more I lost that closeness, but.” She shook her head. “I wouldn’t trade it. Now I have you and the girls as family, and you will never have to worry where a meal is coming from. It was all worth it.”

“I’m glad this place gave me you. If you had grew up anywhere else you wouldn’t be the woman I love.” Her hand caressed Miranda’s cheek. “But I’m glad you got out as well.”

Miranda gripped Andy’s hand. “I don’t know who I would have been if I stayed, but I know I wouldn’t have been happy.” She sighed, letting the past out of her again. “But I don’t need to worry about that now after all these years.”

“Then lets go back home.”

“Yes, let’s.” Miranda slipped her hand into Andrea’s and started walking back the way they had come. 


End file.
